BILL MATTERN, Scituate: Junk the tax code and start over

Wednesday

Apr 26, 2017 at 12:01 AMApr 28, 2017 at 3:53 PM

TO THE EDITOR:

When I consider our tax code I have to ask, has this country gone completely mad?

We have a tax code that is over 15,000 pages. Money magazine repeatedly illustrated that even tax experts could not agree on how to interpret the code. According to Warren Buffett, the very rich can often legally pay a lower rate than an average citizen. Perhaps the biggest absurdity is that the man who expects to dictate how to change the code is our current president. He not only refuses to release his own tax returns, but brags about how smart he is to avoid paying taxes.

It is about time to scrap the entire code and start over. Unfortunately, it appears that to do the job that really needs to be done cannot be done by politicians in our current political environment.

It is conceivable that a blue-ribbon committee, isolated from all lobbyists and free of political pressures, might be able to do the job. It is possible they could come up with a plan that put to a vote by all citizens could solve this problem.

To do nothing is bad enough. To make it worse would be maddening. Unfortunately, this might happen.

BILL MATTERN

Scituate

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